|
| 7:38am |
Figuring that tossing and turning
since 7:03am is a clue we're done sleeping, I'm up and out of bed.
(Even though with tonight's overnight train ride -- that's not in
a sleeper car but just an upright seat -- I know I should be trying
to get my sleep now.) |
| 8:43am |
Finally, the balance of the human entities got up and out of bed,
and began their morning what-nots. |
| 9:01am |
We carried everything downstairs,
settled our AU$4.50 phone bill (9 calls at 50c each, which is the
norm in every Australian location we've found thus far), and checked
our luggage into their storage area. |
| 9:15am |
A brief walk and we're at the Museum City Rail station, where we
bought a DayTripper pass (AU$15), which allows for unlimited train,
bus, and ferry travel for the day (ending at 4am tomorrow; we'll be
long gone, but you can file away should you ever visit Sydney). |
| 9:19am |
Quite conveniently, our train
arrives just a moment after we got to the platform. |
| 9:24am |
We alighted from the train at Circular Quay, where Rachel got a
nibble to eat at McDonald's, and Tubby opted instead for a Diet Coke,
owing to a lack of Pepsi products in the vicinity. |
| 9:29am |
Our little group arrived at Berth
3, just in time to see the ferry leave for Manly. Bugger. The next
one would depart at 10am. |
| 9:38am |
Sitting about the Quay, we bumped into a chap playing his
didgeridoo. |
| 9:43am |
We headed over to the Berth to begin
waiting, and Tubby mused that a day without an Opera
House photo is like a day without sunshine. Or Diet Pepsi. (And
in that regard, sunrise has yet to occur.) |
| 10:03am |
The ferry was briefly delayed, for reasons unknown, but we finally
began the journey along to Manly. It was a bit chilly, so we ducked
inside during the ride. |
| 10:35am |
We were put ashore at the ferry building
on Manly, and began our
wandering of this place by walking along The Corso toward Manly Beach.
(The ferry puts ashore within Manly Bay, but it's only a few blocks
across the bit of land until you're at the beach and looking out to
the South Pacific Ocean.) |
| 11:21am |
After wandering about a fair bit, and ducking into a little art
festival type of sidewalk display on one of the side streets, we opted
for a bit of gelato while waiting for the 11:45am ferry back to Circular
Quay. |
| 11:32am |
Regardless of what the bumper stickers
say in California, here, at least at the ferry building, skateboarding
is a crime. |
| 11:46am |
And, we're off, and giving a last look out at the Manly Bar harbour
and skyline. |
| 11:47am |
Over the 30 minute ride back, Tubby
and I ended up snapping almost 50 pictures of the harbour, Opera House,
bridge, and city skyline... and all the sailboats floating out and
about this noon. Fortunately, I won't subject you to them all, but
instead just a few of things like a
pink sailboat, the skyline
coming into view, a flock
of seagulls and some
folks sailing on the ocean blue, and the CBD
skyscrapers. |
| 12:11pm |
We pulled back into Berth 3 and disembarked from the ferry and back
onto solid ground. |
| 12:20pm |
Just on the south end of Circular
Quay is the Justice
and Police Museum, open weekends (and only AU$7 for adults, no
charge for ducks, fortunately). This museum spans the early years
of policing in New South Wales from the 1800s or so, but that's after
the import of criminals from England had already begun. (That practice
was apparently started in the 1780s, resulting in about 80,000 folks
shipped to Australia for such crimes as murder and stealing a loaf
of bread, just like Jacque-something, aka Number 24601.) |
| 1:59pm |
After leaving the police museum, we headed back to Paddy's Market
to wrap up a few missed items.
What do you suppose this
sign means? (Answer below.) |
| 2:08pm |
Taking the path of least resistance
and shortest walking, we picked up all of our items at the place just
inside the door. |
| 2:23pm |
A stop at an overly warm Subway rendered us loaded up with three
sandwiches for the 14 hour train ride to Brisbane overnight tonight.
Yes, 14 hours. In economy class, in just a regular seat. 14 hours.
Goodie. |
| 2:51pm |
We returned to the hotel and gathered
up our luggage. The shuttle to the train station wasn't due until
3:15pm, but we like to be prepared. |
| 2:57pm |
And apparently, so does our driver, Eduardo, from Chile (and who
recently visited San Francisco, California with his wife just a few
weeks ago; small world). |
| 3:03pm |
Nearly as soon as it started, we were
at the train station. Yessir, another five block shuttle ride where
we could have probably walked and saved a few bucks (which we could
have applied to a sleeper car on the train; although I later learned
that was a AU$110 upgrade, or about $77 US. Well... we'll see how
I feel at 6:35am tomorrow once we're in Brisbane. |
| 3:09pm |
The plot thickens. After checking our luggage, we're told they're
track work, and to catch a bus outside. We go outside. |
| 3:13pm |
No bus. The guy wearing the lime green
Bus Marshal vest tells us the bus is "down there", pointing
to the front of the train station, where they're no sign, and no bus. |
| 3:54pm |
Apparently, "down there" means wait 45 minutes and a bus
will arrive. Because sure enough, it did. |
| 4:09pm |
With 35 souls aboard, we began the
ride to Maitland. Despite it being only 90 km (60 miles and change),
the driver told us we would "hopefully" get there by 7pm.
3 hours? |
| 5:24pm |
We made the first of two stops, this one in Gosford, to pick up
one passenger. It took a while, though, because four people jumped
off the bus. Three (the two women with the three kids), and a young
guy, to smoke... these were the chain-smokers that graced us with
plumes of smoke in the Sydney train station. And of course, there
was the fourth passenger who leapt off to change her baby's diaper.
Whilst smoking over the baby's naked lower half as she changed the
diaper... I guess it's a good thing she knows how to flick her ashes
away from her offspring. |
| 5:31pm |
We're back on our way... |
| 5:52pm |
We stop in Wyong to pick up four or five folks, and then headed
down a dark, two-lane road, behind a car pulling an empty horse trailer.
At 60 km/h (about 42 miles an hour). |
| 6:05pm |
We got back onto Highway 1 bound for
Maitland. Yeah, highway! |
| 6:49pm |
The coach arrived at the bus station, where we were greeted with
an announcement that the train was still 15-20 minutes out, and from
there, would need to be serviced, so we'd not likely get under way
until about 8pm. Groovy. |
| 7:03pm |
Making the most of our time, I headed
off to the little market to grab beverages, as I was quite parched.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that despite being the only game
in town, the guy wasn't jacking up the prices; the cost of the soda
here was the same as in downtown Sydney (AU$2.50 or about US$1.75
for a 600ml / 20 ounce bottle.) |
| 7:08pm |
I perched
at the station and waited for my ship train to come in. |
| 7:13pm |
The train, with five cars and an engine
on both ends pulled in, and the cleaning and what-not began. |
| 8:01pm |
All loaded up, we left Maitland, only 52 minutes later than the
scheduled time. (The claim was the bus trip would take an extra 40
minutes from the train, but having left 20 minutes early on the bus,
we arrived at 6:49pm in M |
|
|
The sign is intended for folks who don't realize that when the signal
lights are dark (as in no power) to treat the intersection like a
stop sign. |
| 9:58pm |
I finished today's updates, and my battery is showing about 20%
of its life left, so it's going to go into forced sleep mode at any
moment. Which I guess means I should, too. |
| 10:02pm |
This should be fun, but what the heck...
why not? We'll be in Brisbane in 9 hours or so. Goodie! |
| 10:04pm |
Tubby and I wander to the snack car (in Car C, we're in Car D),
and return to see the girl seated in front of Tubby look at us with
a, "save me!" look about her. (We initially saw her as we
wandered around the Maitland train station, standing alone, then still
standing alone, then with a funny looking guy chatting her up as we
boarded; he's now seated next to her.) |
| 10:08pm |
Funny looking guy gets up. I tell
Rachel about the rescue look, so Rachel leans forward and asks if
she's in peril. She confirmed she was, and despite there not being
much else to do, he's horribly dull and she did have a book to read.
Then the guy, who I've opted to call Thom, returns and sits back down. |
| 10:22pm |
The train stops at Taree station, for reasons unknown. Thom and
two others leap to the platform like something bit them -- it sort
of did... they'd not had a cigarette in two and a half hours. Rachel
again leans forward and asks if the conversation is killing the girl,
because of what we could hear, it's pathetic. (The last bits we heard
was him relaying a rugby game, with sound effects.) Introductions
were made, so we can now call the girl Tegan, coming home from school
in Newcastle during the holiday weekend (Monday is the Queen's birthday,
so it's effectively an almost national holiday). Tegan mentioned she
already confirmed with the conductor someone would be sitting next
to her, so "Thom" was going to have to move anyway. |
| 10:25pm |
The train sounded the whistle and
the three nicotine addicts leapt back aboard; apparently suspicious
of us, Thom sat somewhere else, and the lights were turned down at
10:30pm, with Tegan reading a book, and Thom trying to get cozy in
the seats across from Tegan. (I wonder if his behaviour had anything
to do with the two confirmed, and possibly as many as four 355ml (12
ounce) Light Ice beers he's had since we boarded at 8pm?). (All three
of the smokers also ignored the fact they were smoking in front of
the red-and-white $1,000 fine for smoking on the platform sign...
where's a transit cop when you want one?) |
| |
|
